I saw this list over on Missisgoode's blog and my reasons for thinking it's an excellent idea are pretty similar!  What with so many deadlines, writing really long blog posts are not the easiest thing to do! Hopefully posting every day for a month will get me in the swing of regularly blogging as well!

Some of the things (Mainly day 19! What on earth do they mean?!) are a little bit weird, and I might change a couple of them, but for the most part i'll be stealing Issy's list! So, as of Saturday, i'll be blogging 30 days straight! 

Here are the questions which form the challenge;

Day 1 - Your current relationship, or how single life is.

Day 2 - Where you would like to be in ten years

Day 3 - Your views on drugs and alcohol

Day 4 - Your views on religion

 Day 5 - The happiest memory of your life

Day 6 - Write thirty interesting facts about yourself

 Day 7 - Your zodiac sign and if you think it fits your personality

Day 8 - A moment you felt the most satisfied with your life

Day 9 - What you hope your future will be like

Day 10 - Discuss your first love and first kiss

Day 11 - Put your music player on shuffle and write ten songs that pop up

Day 12 - Bullet your whole day

 Day 13 - Somewhere you would like to move or visit

Day 14 - Your earliest memory

 Day 15 - Your favourite Tumblrs

Day 16 - Your views on mainstream music

Day 17 - Your highs and lows of the past year

Day 18 - Your beliefs

 Day 19 - Disrespecting your parents

 Day 20 - How important you think education is

 Day 21 - One of your favourite shows

 Day 22 - How have you changed in the past two years?

Day 23 - Give pictures of five guys who are famous who you find attractive

Day 24 - Your favourite movie and what it's about

 Day 25 - Someone who fascinates you and why

 Day 26 - What kind of person attracts you?

 Day 27 - A problem that you have had

Day 28 - Something that you miss

 Day 29 - Goals for the next thirty days

Day 30 - Your highs and lows of this month

I started this year on a bit of a health kick, and now that I have come the end of February, I'm struggling, badly! Popping the new Happi Feet into my gym shoes and realising just how long it has been since I've worn them, has made me realise I need to get my bum back to the gym!

Happi Feet are marketed as being 3 in 1 shoe fresheners which combine style, fragrance and deodarising abilities. They come in four scents of Japanese Cherry Blossom, Madagascan Vanilla, Caribbean Beach Breeze and Freshly Laundered. The pack I was sent had a sample of Freshly Laundered and a scratch and sniff tester of the other scents. All are far from unpleasant smelling but I think the Cherry Blossom and Freshly Laundered are the nicest scents! They smelt the strongest of the four scents, and if you're putting them in shoes, this is something I'd look for.

(Here on the left you can see the blue elastic with tags on around the tongues of my shoe, these are the shoe fresheners! On the right is the back of the bag which has gives information about the product, and is reseable so you can pop them back in and lock in that fragrance!)

The packet said they can last up to six weeks, and having had them in my gym shoes for a couple of days already, they still smell strong and my shoes are smelling fresh! When I first opened the packaged, I started to worry a little, my gym shoes are only a little over a month old, and in comparison to my old smelly gym shoes I replaced with these bad boys, they're hardly ponging yet!What I think is good is if I get in the habit of using these early enough, I think my new gym shoes will remain fresh and new for far longer, and when you shell out on gym shoes, the longer they don't smell for, the better! 

The shoe fresheners work by having an elastic loop which is hooked over the tongue of your shoe, so the freshener hovers inside, and the freshener is small enough to fit in any shoe. I was surprised how easy it was to get onto the shoe, as I sort of expected to be hooking it though my laces to stay, but it just slots right in! Unlike shoe sprays or other like products, you only need to put it in once and it works away, so you don't have to constantly spray stuff into your shoes! 

  Happi Feet come with a resealable bag, so once you feel your shoes are fresh enough, or you need to wear them, you're able to put them back into the bag to lock in the scent to ensure the 6 weeks of use out of them. They're available in Tesco retailing at an RRP of £2.60, which is excellent for 6 weeks of freshness, and a snip of what new smelling gym shoes would cost!

The packet says you can use them in any shoes, even slippers, or try slipping them into your wardrobe, but i'm definitely going to stick with using these in my gym shoes. That said, I definitely need to get myself back to the gym so they can get to work on ridding my shoes of smells!

Disclaimer: I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, however all opinions are my own, and form part of an honest review.

My obsession with lush bath bombs, well, lush in general is bordering on neurotic. It's up there with my love of cats and crisps. I must have been about twelve when I first tried a bath bomb from them, i'm pretty sure it was a birthday present, and I wasn't overally taken. I don't think I had outgrown my tom-boy stage where still saw baths as a chore, rather than a pleasure. Yes, twelve was a little late to still hate hygiene.

 Any whom, after finally getting a bathroom which isn't shared with the male species (downside to uni accomodation,) me and the girls have developed an obsession. I rarely go into town without going into Lush and buying something to try out. Baring in mind we are all poor students, it's becoming a bit of an issue. They smell so good it's hard to resist! I really don't need the excuse of mid-week blues to lie in the lovely bathy goodness if i'm honest!

What I really love is the wide range they do, from bath bombs which make the water remain clear and silky to moisturise you, to highly perfumed and glittery, there is such a wide choice. If you ask one of the ever so helpful members of staff they'll advise you what best suits your needs, from dry skin to stress; there's something to help.

HoneyBee.

 I've only ever had one bath bomb I didn't like, and it had nothing to do with the feel or the smell. In fact, it smelt lovely, and made my skin feel so moisturised, but it was a yellow coulor and sent the bath water a murky yellow shade, and I felt like I was bathing in wee. That said, if you're hardly as squimish as me, Honey Bee might be the bath bomb for you!

Honeybee looking beautiful before going into the bath!

Honebee after making the water all murky!

Space Girl.

Another I've tried out recently is space girl.

It's really similar to Sex Bomb in terms of colouring and smell I think, but it has a little bit of sparkle on top. It goes away once in the water though and the water becomes and beautiful smelling shade of pink and purple! One thing I really loved is unlike Sex Bomb, Space girl has popping candy in and pops away whilst melting away in the bath.  I'm pretty sure the fine glittery bit on tops the popping candy part.

Butterball.

On the total opposite end of the scale is Butterball, it gentley fizzes away in the bath and doesn't change the colour, it's just a plain white ball, ! It was that boring to look at I forgot to take a photo of it! 

Although it might be overlooked by some for the plain appearance, it has the most benefits from all the bath bombs i've tried as it makes the water so silky and mouisturining! It also smells like chocolate, and ooh, that bits good!

Sex Bomb.

However, my all time fave is sex bomb! It's a lovely pink and purple colour. It has a little flowered rose in the top which means foamy petals float in your bath with you and it smells delish! Online it says it's full of all the scents to help relax and calm anxiety such as jasmine and ylang ylang. It just looks so lovely, and it really does calm me. Over Christmas I managed to fall asleep in the bath for a good five hours as I felt that calm and soothed! I really doubt any bath bomb will come close to overtaking my love for Sex Bomb!

 I find bath bombs are such a good way to relax. Now matter how busy I get, I try to find a small pocket of 30/60 minutes where I can zone out from the world and enjoy some colourful soothing water. I realise the older I get and the closer work, marriage, babies, pets become, the less time i'm likely to have, so might use this as an excuse to get buying some more bath bombs!

When Canvas Design posted on twitter looking for bloggers who would like to review their canvas', I jumped at the chance! I've always loved taking photos and I am that annoying person who is always shoving a camera in your face, so I had plenty of photos to choose from!

I emailed Loren at Canvas Design and I was asked to pop an email over with the photo I'd like. I'm not very good at all things techy, and didn't know how to check the size of the images (a lot had been taken on my iPhone, and the quality means it could lead to a fuzzy image) so I sent over a couple images for them to look over to find a suitable one. They were really helpful in making sure they were printed at a suitable size to ensure a good quality image remained!

Thursday afternoon, whilst sat in a lecture a text popped up on my phone telling me my my parcel would be delivered the next day and gave me the chance to reply to have it delivered to a neighbour, the next day, or the day after instead. If that wasn't helpful enough, I got another text Friday morning giving me an hour time frame in which the order would arrive in! If you're like me and try and fit a million and one things to do in one day, knowing you're not sitting around all day for a parcel is really good! More so, when you place an order you get free 48h delivery. To get your parcel that quick, without a delivery fee, and in an designated hour time slot, is pretty darn good!

When the canvas arrived, it was like christmas all over again! It was VERY well packaged, and I took great pleasure in ripping off (carefully!) the wrapping!  Fear not planet lovers, it was recycled!

I wouldn't say I was skeptical as such, but the companies prices are far lower than their competitors, starting at £7.99 for a 6 x 6  canvas. So, part of me was expecting the excellent prices to be reflected in a lower quality canvas but I couldn't have been more wrong!

 They're such excellent quality. The frames are so sturdy and the canvas material is made from 380gsm pure cotton canvas. One of the heaviest in the market place, according to their website. More so, you've no need to fiddle about in your 'DIY' box trying to find some tacks to put it up with, nor do you need to buy any, as each canvas comes with a hanging kit so you can hang your canvas up on the wall!

 I've seen canvas' from other companies before and as well as being more expensive in compassion, the quality is no match for these! I've been tempted to buy photos on canvas for a while now, but something that always put me off was some fold the image around the canvas box, meaning you lose out on parts of your image, but not at Canvas Design. They mirror the last bit if your image and make it look like part of the photo and ensure that it looks normal, so your image still covers the whole canvas, rather than being left with white gaps around the end of the box and without you losing out on any of the image on the actual frame. Although, if you're wanting the white gaps, fear not, you can pick that option too!

I really can't recommend this company enough! I actually let out a sequel when I opened the parcel, and my housemate even commented on how lovely they are! I'm carefully resting them on a shelf at the moment as I going to put them up in the new house, and I really cannot wait to have these beautiful canvas' up in the new house!

Disclaimer: I was sent a free canvas for the purpose of this review, however all opinions are my own, and an honest review.

I've been longing after a new blusher for a while now, but after investing in a Bobbi Brown blusher over summer and really hating it, I had been put off slighly from splashing out on another. After a stressful day last week I popped into Mac in Newcastle and treated myself to some lovely goodies, one of which was this blush in peachykeen.

I suffer from a lot of redness in my skin, and i'm very pale, so a lot of blushers make the redness even more obvious. I asked the lady on the counter what she would advise me to go for. She suggested I went for a blusher with a little bit of shimmer in. I really hated shimmer blush, but often go for garish matte colours which  make the redness worse, so I decided to remain open minded to new options.

She suggested a couple she thought would suit me and I decided to try Peachykeen on. It's very subtle on yet is highly pigmented. The Mac website describes it as a very baby peach, and it is a sheertone shimmer finish. Which is a fair description. Soon as it was on I fell in love. It's not overly shimmery and it appears very natural. It's a blusher I can wear everyday without fearing I will look blotchy or like a clown. It gives a natural glow without looking like your face was dipped in glitter.

PeachyKeen *With Flash*

Peachykeen *Without Flash*

It might not be such a suitable blush if you have darker skin or  you're not looking for a very subtle blush colour though, as obviously I've only tried it on my pasty skin. I tend to apply it to the apples of my cheeks very lighly and then across my cheekbones. When swatching it, its possible to build it darker, but its not something I have or would want to try on my cheeks, as I like the nice soft finish it gives, as well as acting a little like a highlighter too due to the little shimmer in it. As you can see below.

PeachyKeen Swatched *with flash*

The blusher came in at £18 and I have read online some people compare it to Nars Orgasm blush. The price difference between the two is not massive as Nars blushers come in at around £21.50 online. So depending how many pennies you want to save it might be a possibility to swap over from Nars to Mac I guess, but there isn't much price difference.

I have most defiantly fallen in love with Peachykeen and will be keeping this in my every day make-up bag!

This week would have been a really good week of fun, happiness and friends, if not for the influx of mice we had to endure. Oh and a trip to the walk in center due to my flatmate tearing a muscle in her knee. That said, we had fun raiding the vending machine and eating too much crap!

 So much  online when looking for advice on what to do about rodents consists of 'it's your own fault, don't be messy'. The thing is, they were here before we moved in and are getting in through holes in the brickwork which the landlord will not fix. So we're having to endure living with a massive family of mice who can just walk in and out as they please despite us being clean, tidy and removing as best we can their access to food. Yet they still manage to get inside our cupboards, around our fridge etc. Which is disgusting. It's meant we've only really got one/two mice free rooms in the house and we've all been living on top of each other. We are doing everything we can; we've brought traps ourselves, despite having next to no student loan left and we've stuffed all the holes under doors with pillowcases to stop them getting into and out of rooms etc. 

It's fun for the first few nights of 'sleep overs' of all of us in one bed, but with dissertation due dates looming, the novelty quickly wore off. Having to harm living creatures, not being able to sleep, cook properly and the fear of constantly seeing them everywhere is all taking it's tole. Not to mention the money we're spending on rent to be left enduring this and forking out for traps, poison etc! That said, we have had a laugh. We decided to watch Rastamouse on Sunday morning whilst trying to get some kip. A welcomed change from the academic journals we all have to read! 

I had been feeling a bit down this week. Lots of deadlines, poor living conditions and homesickness drove me to feeling a little nostalgic. So I headed over to Amazon and ordered my favourite childhood book. I fricken loved this book as a kid, and if i'm honest, I still do, and may or may not *I did* make my housemates and boyfriend read it to me.  Soon as it arrived I sent a photo of it to my mum, and asked if she remembered it. I used to refuse to sleep until she read it to me every night.  For world book day I would dress as Telephone Ted, whilst all the other girls dressed as princesses. I didn't care how weird I looked, as Ted was an awesome bear. My mum called me straight back and asked if I was going to dress up like the Bear again, and had a good hour long phone call about how I used to think my teddy answered the phone whilst I was at school and everyone else was out. Best £1 I ever spent, as it was an excellent mood lifter!

Talking of bears, this is the best bear going! This is the bear my parents brought before I was born and I've slept with every night since. So he is now well over twenty-two years old!  He's came into a few scrapes over his time. Most of his stuffing has been taken from other stuffed toys which are murdered in an attempt to save him. He very nearly ended up in the bin at a Birmingham Travelodge also, as I left him behind. After a very massive dash across the city, my lovely boyfriend managed to get back into our room and save the cleaner from binning him! So it's very fitting both wonderful humans/bear-mans were my valentines. Roses from both lovelies this valentines made me feel a  very lucky girl.

If we're honest, valentines day can seem like a day where you're forced to buy cards and spend loads just 'cause everyone else does. Granted you should appreciate those in your life every day, not just your partners, all those you love. Love is good! Now that disclaimer of 'two valentines day rambles doesn't mean I agree with the point of it' is out of the way, brings me on to how Friday was a good day!

I spent valentines day with some of those I love; my housemates, bear and boyfriend. The man-chum had to work, and I had a couple hours in uni, so we decided we'd have a cosy night in of pizza and dvds once we were both back. It was awesome, who doesn't like pizza?!  The day was spent with my housemates though, chugging down valentines day Starbucks hot chocolates and destroying and umbrella in under 20 seconds! 

That is no exaggeration either! We stepped off the bus, put up the umbrella, and about 5 steps later, the plastic has ripped off and I was left with mental prongs! Being the responsible human I am though, I carried it the rest of the way to Tesco so it could be properly disposed of! This was a lot harder than it sounds as the wind was tugging it from my hand still! The looks I was getting for not just letting go of it were amusing though! I was desperately clinging onto the umbrella and trying to make sure my housemate didn't get knocked off her crutches by the wind!

After an eventful week, I was looking forward to a relaxing week of getting some dissertation done and indulging in too many lush bath bombs, but it seems the week will be full of more drama knowing our luck. I just want a good nights kip and a lot of sleep.  I've forgot what it feels like to be asleep for more than 45 minutes at a time. It is cruel when your student days are meant to be the ones where you sleep all day!

I live with two other (wonderful) ladies in a rented student house, for which we pay double the amount of a normal/typical house of this size/area which isn't a student house. It seems because we are students though, taking our money, ripping us off and making us live in a hell house is okay.

Don't get me wrong, I know things can go wrong, but the amount of things wrong with our house has gone past the point of normal or acceptable.  Whenever something goes wrong we let them know; we'll drop an email, pop into the shop or phone them up, but things never seem to get better. Today sort of reached a breaking point resulting in us all crying on the sofa together, just wanting to move out to somewhere safe and not full of mice. We've only been here a few months and just far too much has gone on.

First there was the leaking bathroom. The plumber has been out, but 6 visits later and a room full of cracked tiles, and it's still possibly leaking. The bath has been left open incase it was to leak again, but the wall of the kitchen is so stained and damaged from the constant leaking you can only tell by touching it and seeing if it's soaking wet. Very technical I know. Catching my foot on the broken tile getting in the bath is also a little concerning.

Then there was the roof which had a hole in. They kept saying someone had been out to fix it before. They might have done, but y'know, it was still leaking. It's fixed now, it's the one thing they did actually fix.

The final and worst problem is the mice. The people who lived here before we happen to actually know, and they too had a massive mouse problem, and it seems a year and a half later and it's still not sorted. We've had people out but it's not got better. We have about 15 traps down, which we had to buy ourselves. This weekend however we've caught four, and three are running loose in our front room. They're not even scared of us now, don't run away and come towards us. Some are huge, others are tiny babies. We found one running out of our fridge area earlier and they've been getting into our cupboards. Nobody wants mice crawling over their food, taking over their house and making them a prisoner in their own house.

We really don't want to, but we think it's time to involve environmental health and the university. We really wish it didn't come to this but we have no idea what else to do. Anyone renting ever had similar problems and able to offer advice? 

I love where I go to University. The city, the friends I've made here and having my own space are all excellent, but that doesn't stop the waves of homesickness that often hit midterm. I rarely get to go home as I moved over 300 miles away. Expensive trains and no money never mix well.

When you've loads of deadlines, the cupboards are empty, and you're missing your mumma's cooking, it makes the next half term break feel ages away. In reality it is only about 6 weeks. After three years I feel able to deal with being away from home by now, but I still remember what first year felt like. When you've had a really bad day, sometimes it could really feel like I was the only person who had ever gone uni and missed home. Many uni's have loads of support for people feeling homesick, stressed, or experiencing troubles at uni. If you're really struggling with missing home contacting them might be useful, but sometimes all you want it that quick 'pick me up' so you can get back to enjoying the uni lifestyle.

Whenever I felt I really missed home, the two biggest temptations were a massive takeaway, or a big night on the town. Both of which are terrible ideas for me.

If you're missing home cooked food, you're probably near the stage where you've forgot what a vegetable looks and tastes like. Filling up on grease never provides me comfort. I often found arranging a Sunday roast with the flat was the best cure. If there is a lot of you, splitting the cost of chicken, veg etc, doesn't amount to much, and sharing the workload around gives bonding time too! This probably wouldn't provide much comfort if you can't cook though. Maybe pop to your local pub-establishment and get a roast dinner down you pronto!

Drinking when I felt I missed home always made me feel worse too. Alcohol and too many emotions will always end in tears. Wasting the little student loan I have left this point in the term on entry to dirty smelly clubs is also the last thing I want to do. Free entry bars all the way!

Nice warm bubble baths, cleaning the house so it actually feels like home again, a proper home cooked meal and spending time with my 'uni family' all help cheer me up.

Moving away makes me miss things I never really thought too hard about. I miss the puddles I had to trudge through every day to catch a bus, my silly cat who chews apart my stuff and pulls silly faces, my mums terrible cooking suddenly is all I want to eat and my annoying brother who uses my face wash and denies it doesn't seem to annoy me all that much anymore. I don't think a week passes without me having a day where I think 'Gosh, i'd do anything to go back home for a night', but I like to remember, home is just a phone call and a train away.

University doesn't last for ever, so I'm going to make my last few months count!

Overall this week has been pretty good, well, the later part of the week has been exceptionally good.

The week started off on a bit of a low. I received a result back from an exam I took in January and although I passed, it was hardly the mark I dreamed I’d get. I’m allowed to not include 20 credits in my overall degree, so I’m hoping that module will be the one to get dropped and I’ll still be on for a 2:1. Later in the week I got an essay mark back and it was a high 2:1,  this really cheered me up after the exam result let down. I really do want to do well at university, I will feel  I have let myself down if I don’t, but I’ve learnt so much more than that from lectures and I’ve made some excellent friends too in the process.

I was tidying up this week and found my referral letter from my doctors. It was dated for the start of December so I sent an email tnquiring how much longer it would be likely for me to wait until I would get an appointment for counselling. Turns out I have another eight weeks wait at least. Meaning it’ll be unlikely I’m seen before April. I know there must be a high demand on services, but is a five month wait really acceptable?! I feel a bit forgotten about if I’m honest, like another name on a long list. Thankfully I feel pretty good right now so will not be dwelling on it too much.

To celebrate my good exam result, breaking from my diet, and a general date night,  me and my lovely man-chum went to our favourite Indian buffet. It really was the perfect end of the week. I ate copious amounts of food. I felt I could hardly move once we were done. Even thinking about it now is making me want to drool. *mmm*.

Further adding to the Friday Joy was TwinMummyAndDaddy 's  idea for newbie bloggers, the Binky Linky.  A group for those blogging under a year and tackling all those newbie problems, and it has proved so friendly and helpful so far! I’m starting to think I’m the newest of them all. All the members of the group whose blogs I’ve read already have really well written posts, and lots of them at that! Hopefully I’ll soon catch up and have some more constructive posting too! I did feel a little disheartened with blogging to start. I was overwhelmed by how much there is to know, and had so many questions to ask and I had nowhere to take them. It’s really reassuring to know I’ve somewhere to turn to ask questions now, because if anyone could’ve seen my internet history before, it was basically me asking google a million of questions and trying to work out how you do this blogging thing!

I’m nearing slightly closer to birthdays, graduation and my having to ‘become a grown-up’, so I’m contemplating looking back at my bucket-list next week, seeing what I’ve crossed off and am yet to do!

Until next time my lovelies.

Time To Talk is an excellent campaign from Time To Change who are aiming to bring an end to the discrimination of mental health. According to their website their campaign started in 2007, and I really wish I had heard about it sooner as it truly is an excellent idea. When faced with the astonishing fact that 1 in 4 of us will suffer from mental illness each year, it  really should not be the case that mental illness is talked about so little or people are too afraid to talk about it.  When searching on their website this image was one of the ones available to download and use when making your #timetotalk pledge, and it really did related to me.

Therefore, I too am going to make my #timetotalk pledge by talking about my illness.  It feels very weird saying it, but I suffer from depression. It's not difficult to say through shame though. I don't want to be defined by it, and I feel much of the stigma or misconceptions many people have about depression suffers is the biggest reason I like to keep it to myself. That and admitting I have depression highlights how I really should have realised a lot sooner and got help a lot earlier.

There were a lot of signs months before I saw my doctor who diagnosed me that everything wasn't okay. To everyone else I was most likely a normal 20 year old student enjoying university life. There is no big cast on your arm/leg like when you suffer a broken limb, and if you don't talk about the way you feel, it's sometimes difficult to know.  When my low moods started mainfesting in days spent crying, hating things I used to love and barely going to uni, the way I was feeling became obvious to those close to me.

 I'm very lucky to have supportive friends at uni who really have been amazing to me, but I was really scared of describing how I felt, and concerned someone would tell me to 'Just pull yourself together', as it's something I'd heard many experiencing. I think I was being extra harsh on myself as I study psychology at university so every symptom I felt I was showing of depression made me more angry at myself. Finally I overcame my nerves and went to see a doctor, and every fear I had of them telling me to 'be okay' disappeared. I felt a wave of relief once I had finally discussed the way I felt. The doctor I saw was lovely, despite my tears and anxiety making it very difficult for me to be understood.

 I'd googled a lot of 'what happens when you go see a doctor with depression', and very little of the horror stories I read were actually true. Not once was 'pull yourself together' uttered, nor was I sent for blood tests to check it was some form of other medical issue. I can't say this would be true for everyone though. I was asked a series of questions, some seemed odd, such as asking if I had an alcohol problem and if I was on drugs, then came the questions about my mood and current thoughts. 

I think the most liberating part was being given a choice in what happened next, I was asked my opinion on medication, counselling and CBT. I wasn't too keen on taking tablets at the time, I was scared after reading some stories that if I took Fluoxetine i'd not be 'me' anymore. I did feel a bit weird for a while, but thanks to the encouragement of those around me I stuck with them. I can't even begin to describe how I now feel. It sounds dramatic but I had forgot how it felt to actually want to get out of bed in a morning and be excited for the day!

Ultimately my aim for this year was to have counselling and CBT so I felt a lot more positive and able to  cope, enabling me off of my tablets. However, despite waiting since November, i'm yet to have a counselling session, the waiting list is pretty long it seems. I'm not too sure how i'd have felt by now if i'd turned down the tablets in favour of just sitting tight and waiting to have counselling. When I last saw my doctor she suggested I be at a 'happy level', for at least six months before it'll be considered to take me off the tablets. Hopefully that day will come soon enough though!

The most important thing to remember if you feel you might have depression is you're not alone and getting help won't be scary like you might think. Suffering from depression really doesn't have to mean your life is over. Getting help to deal with the way I felt has made me feel so much better. I feel more like the 'old' me, more than I have done in such a long time. 

There's no shame in admitting you need help for any mental illness. To use the much used analogy, if your arm was broken you'd not suffer alone, would you?